Inspired by "The Serpent in the Sword" from Lee A Jones, I embarked on the quest of forging a pattern-welded double-edged sword that has a visual serpent at its core. The video shows my progress over about 7 days of work. Pattern-welding in addition to structural benefits is also visually very attractive. The sword in this video is constructed from a total of seven bars. Two edge bars, two twisted bars and three bars for the serpent. The whole process while using modern tools is very similar to the one that anglo-saxon or viking-age blacksmiths might have employed. Each step in created a pattern-welded sword is explained and narrated in the video above.

In my quest to forge another double-edged viking-age sword, I have been experimenting with a serpent pattern. As part of my experimentation, I forged the the seax shown in the picture. It's over all length is 21.5 in, with a 16.5 in long blade and 5in long handle. It's a 7 bar construction. The cutting edge and back are W1. The two twisted bars are 11-layers of 15n20 and 1095. The serpent itself is an 11-layer straight laminate of 15n20 and 1095 backed by two bars of mild steel. As the picture shows the pattern came out quite nicely and the overall shape of the blade is quite pleasing. The next project is going to take the serpent pattern to a double-edged sword. We will see how that goes.